


The Hymn of the Rings

by automatic_badgirl



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Divergent Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Dyson Rings, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Force Dyad (Star Wars), Happy Ending, I Crossed Time and Space for You, Light Angst, Lightsaber Battles (Star Wars), Post-Canon Fix-It, Post-Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Redemption, Soul Bond, Starkiller Base (Star Wars), The Dark Side of the Force (Star Wars), The Force, The World Between Worlds (Star Wars), World Between Worlds Cookie Exchange, force projection, science is magic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-04
Updated: 2021-01-04
Packaged: 2021-03-14 07:35:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28541889
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/automatic_badgirl/pseuds/automatic_badgirl
Summary: They called it Rey's Folly.Well, the ones who knew her name called it that.  Most just shrugged and shook their heads and muttered in Galactic Standard about the foolish or lunatic girl who was building something crazy in the empty regions of space near where Ilum used to be. Two giant rings encompassing the collapsed planet that was now a star.Guided by the Force Rey builds a star-spanning construct. A powerful array that has the ability to pierce the veil of the World Between Worlds. She is going to find the missing piece to her Dyad. She is going to find Ben.A gift fic for the wonderful Ksco and the World Between Worlds Cookie Exchange. Prompts were soulmates/soulbond and snow.
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo
Comments: 12
Kudos: 39
Collections: World Between Worlds Holiday Cookie Exchange 2020





	The Hymn of the Rings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ksco](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ksco/gifts).



They called it Rey's Folly.

Well, the ones who knew her name called it that. Most just shrugged and shook their heads and muttered in Galactic Standard about the foolish or lunatic girl who was building something crazy in the empty regions of space near where Ilum used to be. 

Rey couldn't bring herself to call the newly formed star Solo. Too painful. 

So scavenger that she was, she begged, borrowed, browbeat, and yeah even stole the parts and droids she needed to construct the array. 

When she first started taking jumps in the Falcon to where Starkiller Base used to be, most just assumed she went to grieve. Some thought it was for some mysterious Jedi sorcery. But after burying the sabers on Tatooine, Rey wasn't interested in the Jedi or Sith or anything much. There was just an aching awareness of the empty part of her soul. 

_Let the past die, kill it if you have to…_

_I'm trying Ben, I really am. But I miss you. So much._

The silence of space was cold comfort and BB-8 knew enough to keep quiet when she was like this. 

"I'm fine BB, just thinking," she replied absently to his forlorn trill. 

So she let the Falcon drift in the empty space near Illum and watched the chunks of the planet that used to be Starkiller hurtle by, locked in orbit around the star the Resistance named Solo in honor of Han. 

_And Ben._

In Rey's heart, Star Solo honored Ben's sacrifice too. 

She wasn't sure when she first got the idea to build the construct. She was gazing out the window of the cockpit and thinking of the first time she saw him. Kylo...Ben. The shock and sense of recognition once he removed his helmet. She was expecting a monster but all she could sense was pain and fear. The last time she looked in his eyes, all that wild surging life was gone. There was a look of peace and happiness but no life. _No, I don't want to think of him like that. That smile. The stillness. No trace of him in the Force._ She concentrated and focused on a moment when he was vividly alive. 

Their battle in the vast snowy forest. 

The cold bite of the snow against her bare skin as she struggled to stay upright against his ferocious onslaught. The heat of Kylo's saber crackling ominously near the flesh of her cheek. Fire and Ice. Just like them. A Dyad.

A boulder-sized part of the planet tumbled past her window, the brightness from the star winking off traces of kyber crystals embedded in the rock. Rey winced at the sudden flare of light. Then blinked as the rock flashed past and space was silent and still again.

_Light and dark…_

She frowned thinking about kyber crystals and some small _something_ from the Jedi texts tugged at her mind. She concentrated. Allowing the Force to settle her mind. There was no brilliant insight, no eureka moment. But as she slipped into the pilot’s seat and began powering up the Falcon’s engines, a calm surety filled her. 

“Where are we going?” she answered BB-8 who had burbled a question at her. “We’re going to get to work, BB, building something important.” 

Now the construct loomed over the Falcon as she maneuvered another hulking bit of debris with the tractor beam into position. Two huge arcs looping around Ilum; a concretion of planetoids, laced with kyber crystals, held in position by vast sheets of duralloy and ferroceramic fittings. Studded here and there were shimmering balls of plasma. Actinic sparks were visible as droids welded yet more panels into position. It was a massive, complicated construction. Rey had been working on it for the better part of the solar cycle. Finally, it was nearly finished. 

“What is it? Is it art? Are you an artist now?” Poe had asked, scratching his head and shrugging good-naturedly. “Can a Jedi be an artist?” Rey had smiled and hugged her friend. 

“I’m not sure I am a Jedi, Poe. And no. It isn’t art.” 

Rey had been happy to see him, however brief the visit might be. He had agreed to loan her droids to help with the creation of the construct. Resistance droids. But as he told Rey, “What’s the use of being a General now if I can’t issue a few inscrutable orders to my minions now and then.” 

“I can’t explain what it is quite yet, even I’m not entirely sure,” she shrugged, “I just had to build it. I felt the need to through the Force.” 

“You sure you aren’t a Jedi? You sound like one.” 

They were in the small station that orbited close by a nexus of the construct. Rey used it as living quarters when she wasn’t roaming for construction material. 

They had stood at a window and silently contemplated the enormous vaulting expanse before them. 

“Is that bit there part of a Lambda-class shuttle?” Poe had pointed. Rey squinted and looked. 

“I think it is. There was plenty to salvage after everything.” 

“Well, you built the hell out of whatever this is. You’re quite the engineer.” He had smiled. 

_I’m no engineer either. I don’t know what I am...not whole. That’s all I know. I’m nobody._

_Not to me…_

Rey remembered how his voice had seemed to be everywhere in the days after Exegol. That time with Poe had been one of the last times she had heard him--Ben--clearly. He was fading. She squeezed her eyes tight against the prick of tears. _Was he only in my head, am I forgetting him? I have to hope. Hang on Ben._

She calmed herself with the sight of her construct. Otherworldly and sweeping. Shimmering crystalline gleams and fiery plasma bursts. Serene and silent, the massive array embraced the star in two loops. The cool shine of metal reflecting the fierce heart of the star. Fire and Ice reigning once more in the Unknown Regions. 

_Ben, I will find you. I know you can't be gone forever. I can't live with that._

The planetoid cruised into position with a reverberating thud Rey felt through the hull of the Falcon. She cut the tractor beam. “Ok. BB. It’s in position.” 

The droid squealed in acknowledgment and beeped commands. Droids outside on the ring began to weld and fix the piece, the last, into place. 

Rey cruised the Falcon slowly around and through the two colossal rings. It was finished. The Force had whispered and Rey had listened and she had built her construct. It sang to her of its wholeness and unity. The hymn of the rings was one of harmony and grandeur. Two interconnected and interlocked improbabilities surrounding Solo, the newly born star. 

She headed for the station. It was time. 

_Time to start this thing and see...well...whatever it is going to do._

Once she had seen all the green there was to see out there, Rey couldn’t resist bringing a little back with her into her station. There was an atrium with a garden, filled with plants and trees and even a small recirculating stream with fish. But she was surprised to find she missed Jakku, so in the center of her garden was a small patch of sand, studded with a few well-chosen rocks. She settled herself cross-legged on the sand. She took a few deep breaths and closed her eyes, reaching for the Force. She gently pressed her fingertips into the sand, feeling the small grains slide through her fingers. She heard the cool hiss of the air exchangers and the soft rustling of the plants in her miniature oasis. Her eyes drifted closed and she let her awareness expand. The lucent mute life of the plants filled her being, the darting motes of hunger and fear that were the fish, further and further she sank into the Force. Her breathing steadied and slowed. She reached out and felt the Force moving and flowing through her now.

Outside, Rey’s Force sense brushed up against the fevered roar of solar radiation pouring from Solo. She felt the gamma rays humming and the basso profundo thunder of dark matter as the Force extended outwards into space. She drifted with it, letting it wash through her until she found her target. Rey’s brows knit and she pushed, feeling as if she were pressing up against an immense immovable wall. There was a minute shudder, and achingly slowly, with ponderous grace, millimeters at a time, the rings began to move. 

Ammoniac sweat darkened her tunic and Rey bore down; deep within herself now as she laboured to bring her creation into being. 

Gradually, inexorably, the rings picked up speed. Visibly in motion now to the naked eye, if Rey had cared to look. Once they had completed one entire revolution, Rey felt the pace increase, a steady exponential escalation. A vague thought floated on her consciousness of a boulder rolling down the slope on Ahch-To, slowly at first but thumping and crashing faster and faster until the acceleration was unstoppable. 

“Yes.” she breathed out as she mentally stepped back through the Force and felt the spinning of the rings continue. There was a tiny vibration now, rumbling through the deck plates of the station. A grin cracked her face as she felt it rippling through the sand. 

_No time to lose focus now._

Rey shivered, closed her eyes, and resettled herself, plunging her hands deep into the soft sand, grounding herself. Reaching out again with the Force, she concentrated fiercely, the timing must be absolutely right for this to work. She trusted the Force to guide her and she was ready when the sensation of * _now_ * filled her. Rey reached out in front of her and _shoved._

Outside the station, the giant rings had been spinning and with each revolution, the speed increased until they were now two blurred halos of rushing metal and rock. The push from the Force Rey had given now caused them to begin to swing and revolve around each other. Interlocked as they were, their gyrations increased the vibration throughout the station, but so far no catastrophic failure. Rey sighed in relief. She trusted the Force but this entire construct was unprecedented. An unknown thing for the unknown region. 

A throb and thrum began to build. In time with Rey’s heartbeat and the swing of the construct as it revolved around the star at its center. The pulse deepened. The rings began to glow, deep blue. The cobalt glow first dimmed then eclipsed Star Solo. Tiny grains of sand and tendrils of Rey’s hair began to float. Above her head, in the top of the atrium, reality shivered and electricity arced through the air. 

Rey was unmoved. Silent and still, even as the first flake of snow drifted down.

Then two more, then blown by a steadily freshening breeze, trickles of snow gusted through the garden. A darkness coalesced and deepened at the top of the atrium. More snow fell, skeins of it now, weaving and dancing through the air. Swirling and thickening snow began to dust the plants in the garden and Rey heard a distant rumbling. 

She tipped her head back and opened her eyes. And looked into a dark, snowy forest. Black pines swaying and shivering as the planet began to crack open from within. She reached up and into the rift. And leaped. 

In the snowy garden, Rey was a statue, one hand dug deep into the sand, anchoring herself, the other outstretched into the void. 

Rey landed lightly in the wintery forest. She had a vague sense of familiarity. She had been too caught up in the battle and trying to escape to notice. Trees towered overhead, heavy branches loaded with snow. The air was bitterly cold but there was a faint tinge of smoke. Brilliant stars peeked and glittered against a midnight sky through the canopy of trees. The forest was an endless expanse of black and white. _It’s beautiful. In a terrible austere way. Like Kylo._

 _But I’m not here for Kylo._ Rey rose to her feet and paused for a moment before setting off, trusting the Force to guide her. The creaks and groans of the dying planet an ominous counterpoint to her measured steps. 

She shivered as she called out, “Ben? Where are you?” 

There was only the winter silence in answer. Then the ground shuddered and Rey felt more than heard a rumble. It was starting, Starkiller Base was starting to implode. 

She moved deeper into the forest. She knew one some level she wasn’t really on the planet, she was some _otherwhere_ . 

_The texts mentioned the Worlds Between Worlds. But not much beyond a passing reference. I guess it must be different for everyone._

“Ben? It’s me. It’s Rey…”

She saw a dark flicker at the edge of her vision and she pivoted. A tall figure rushed towards her, a black outline against the snow. The hiss and crackle of the saber igniting cast a red glow and illuminated the features. _Ben! No...wait._ Rey’s Jedi senses had her on guard.

The face was blurred and indistinct; shivering and shifting, expressions flicking past like a glitching holo. Rey caught a glimpse of the hawkish nose, the cruel mouth pulled into a rictus of anger. _Not Ben or even Kylo. Something else, some remnant left behind._

The Kylo Thing snarled and lashed out at her with the lightsaber. The attack was clumsy and brutish, with none of the powerful grace and energy of the real man. Rey easily parried and struck a killing blow but the figure vanished. 

_I must be close. This projection...twisted as it is, means he must be nearby!_

“Ben, please. Where are you? Help me find you.” Rey spun in the clearing looking for him. 

This time two of the Kylo Things rushed her. She thrust and then pirouetted, sweeping the projections aside. She didn’t have time for this, she could feel the rumbling increasing and clots of snow dropped from branches as the trees rocks and swayed. Rey closed her eyes and reached out with the Force. 

_Ben. I am here…_

She concentrated, ignoring the shuddering of the ground beneath her feet.

_There!_

She ran lightly through the forest, snow crunching under her boots. She was unsurprised to find herself in the clearing where they first dueled. It was the same, the frigid chill of the air, the crystalline sparkle of the drifts, the skeletal arms of the naked branches. She could even see the limp huddle of Finn. _Illusion. All is illusion._ She knew Finn was light-years from here. _Another mirage._

She watched as smoky apparitions of his other self, the brutal Kylo thing, wavered and reformed among the trees. She ignored them and entered the clearing, looking for him. As she stepped forward the Kylo Things, merged and twitched, rushing forward attacking. As before, she sliced through the figments. Focused instead on where they originated. 

An imposing tree, a giant of the winter forest had fallen, ripping up a mat of twisting roots and leaving a hollow depression. The snow had drifted and formed a bulwark at the base. Huddling against this was a figure. Rey recognized him, despite the darkness and the snow. She didn’t need to see the black clothing or the tousled hair or even his face, his dear beloved face. She knew. Her heart recognized him, across oceans of time and space to this neverwhere other place he was. 

“Ben!” She rushed forward. Another apparition materialized in front of her. Writhing and turbulent, it blocked her progress. Rey raised her lightsaber to strike and the ground shook and spasmed. The planet was breaking up. 

“I don’t have time for this,” she growled. Slashing with her lightsaber had no effect. The figure boiled and reformed around the blade. 

“Ben, please! We have to go.” Rey yanked her saber free and tried to push past but the lurching and shaking increased. The curled figure on the ground ignored her pleas, if anything he seemed to curl tighter into himself. 

“Ben!” The crashing of trees falling to the ground was punctuated by a grinding roar as the planet started to rip itself apart. “Ben, look at me. Please look at me!” Rey could barely hear herself over the terrible noise. _Still, he must sense me through the Force, right?_

Too late. Rey was thrown to the ground as a huge jolt slammed through the forest. She saw jets of gasses stream out of cracks that appeared in the crust of the earth, hissing shrilly as they turned the snow to steam. She felt a wash of heat and leaped forward desperately, reaching for Ben but the planetary spasms were too much. She fell into the snow, the Kylo Thing towering over her, a cruel victory leering across its face for a moment. 

The forest disappeared, vaporized in an instant as Illum blew itself apart. 

And Rey landed lightly in the wintery forest. 

She pushed herself upright and ran, knowing where to go now. Heading for the clearing and Ben. The Kylo illusions attacked her again and again. She slashed and spun her way through the images. The ugly ideas he was manifesting. 

“Ben, it’s Rey. Please let me help you. These things,” she grunted as she struck down another Kylo Thing, “are not you, they are illusions. Mind tricks. The Dark Side is doing this.” 

He ignored her as before, his trembling hands clutching tightly to the mass of knotted ancient roots he was cowering under. 

Rey fought fiercely. Hacking her way through to her love, using the Force to blast apart the shades as they swarmed towards her. Feeling the earth quaking beneath her feet. Aware on some level of the minute shuddering of the rings as they whirled and spun. They couldn’t last forever, even in a timeless place like this, Rey was aware her window of opportunity was closing. 

“Ben please!” His silence and rejection, his steadfast clinging to the earth that was breaking up around him were maddening. 

She gestured wildly and the thing attacking her blew apart like a tattered veil. She rushed forward, hand reaching for him when another shade rose out of the darkness pooled at the base of the uprooted tree, red lightsaber already poised to slash down. Rey tried to parry but the blow was so violent her lightsaber was knocked aside, with a cry of mingled rage and terror, Rey instinctively threw up a hand to block the descending blade. 

And gripped it. 

For one agonizing second. She felt the burn as the shadowblade drove into her flesh, felt the pain slam through her as the Kylo Thing worked to sever her hand. She screamed and saw the huddled figure jerk and turn before she felt the ground heave in the next instant and everything vanished in a blast of heat and light as Starkiller Base exploded. 

And Rey landed lightly in the winter forest. Again and again. She ran. She fought. She came close. Every time the planet obliterated itself in a frenzy of violent destruction. Grimly aware of the deteriorating state of the rings. Back on the station, the vibration had heightened. Her self there clutched the earth of her homeworld tightly as sweat oiled her skin and dripped to mix with the streams of melting snow the thirsty sand drank up. 

Exhausted, she staggered into the clearing. Her pace had slackened, and her body was aching from the effort. She no longer had the breath to call out to Ben. Saving her oxygen for the endless onslaught of shadow selves he threw at her. She pleaded with him through their bond. 

_BEN! Stop! Please!_

The figure curled on the ground didn’t react. It was then that Rey felt terror worm its way into her heart. _Would he trapped here forever? Will I? What will happen when the rings fail?_

In the garden, Rey felt tears prick and burn in her eyes. Dying was one thing. _After all,_ she thought with bitter humour, _I’ve died before. But Ben...stuck here. Living this nightmare over and over._

“Enough! You’ve punished yourself enough! Stop this. I need you. I need you to come home!” 

She knew he heard her cry over the sound of the planet in its death throes. Saw his shoulders hunch and the tendons in his hands stood out as he gripped his self-made prison tighter, holding himself down. She was so focused on him and so tired, so very tired, that she wasn’t entirely surprised when she saw a Force projection loom out of the darkness, stabbing cruelly for her. She felt a white-hot pain lance through her side as the Kylo Thing’s shadowsaber drove deep. 

In the garden, Rey threw back her head and screamed but didn’t release her grip on the sand that anchored her to reality, even as blood began to bloom like dark red flowers through the fabric of her tunic. 

In the forest, Rey staggered and sank to her knees, screaming dully as the blade was ripped free. Her own blade dropped from her suddenly numb fingers and fell to the snow and extinguished. She slumped lower, feeling the shaking of the planet beginning to ramp up, heading for its inevitable death. _Is this it? Will I come back again? At least, at least I will die here with him. With Ben._ She struggled to keep her eyes open as she saw with dull shock Ben standing over her, rage and desperation, twisting his face. He reached for her saber and pulled it towards him, using the Force to snatch it and use it to slash down the slithering shadow that was the Kylo Thing.

“No! No! Not again. I can’t--I can’t do this again. Please stop, don’t show me her.” 

Rey’s heart cracked at the anguish in his voice. 

“You aren’t real. Nothing is. Nothing is--” He broke off and stumbled in shock as Rey reached out and clasped a hand around his calf, clutching tight. She rolled her head and gazed up at him. 

“Ben, I’ve found you...looked for so long…” 

Rey smiled up at him. Saw the disbelief and joy chase across her face.

“Is it you? Is it really you?” He knelt and cupped her cheek. Rey managed to place her hand on top of his, felt the living warmth of his skin against her own before everything went white as Starkiller Base imploded in an orgy of fire and fury.

And Rey landed in the snowy forest, stumbling to her knees. She felt a dull pain in her side and pressed her fingers to the ache, not entirely surprised at the spots of blood she saw. _Not a mortal wound. Not yet anyway._ She forced herself to her feet and ran, hideously aware of how short her time was. 

She lurched into the clearing. Blade up, ready for anything. Dozens of shades flicked in and out of focus, a shifting turmoil of dark energy. The thing looked less like Kylo now, as one sprang into life in front of her Rey had a glimpse of a rippling vortex, screaming faces raging at her. She recognized a few, heard a dark chuckle in her mind. She knew that cruel laugh. Palpatine. Only it wasn’t really Palpatine, just a manifestation of evil that this Dark Side Shade plucked from her brain. 

_Why do you fight, child? He is mine now._

She didn’t even spare a breath to contradict it. She swept it aside with a grunt. She was down to her last chance. Her mind and body could not spare more energy for her to keep this up. She sensed this at a bone-deep level, the same knowing that helped her build the rings in the first place. _The Light Side..._

 _What can I do? I am so tired, fighting all this Dark Side energy. I will fail._ Despite her despair, Rey fought her way across the clearing. _If I am to fall. It will be beside him._

_Rey…let the light side guild you._

Rey jerked to a stop, nearly falling as the earth began to buckle and shake. The voice. Familiar, yet not. In it was the voice of every teacher she had ever known. _Balance, Ben and I are meant to bring balance to The Force. This fighting, the violence, this is not the way._ The realization shook her. She knew what she had to do. 

Rey let her tired arms drop and extinguished her saber. In the garden, Rey felt hot tears streak down her cheeks as she surrendered to the will of The Force. 

The Dark Side Shades merged and melded. Gathering mass and density as they willed themselves into being. It shambled across the clearing towards her. Rey heard the ominous hum as it ignited its saber. The red glow reflecting on the snow. She knew the Force Shade had enough power and will to strike her down this time. She shut her eyes and waited. 

_Be with me...Be with me, Ben._ She stretched her hand out, fingers reaching. 

She heard the crunch of the snow and heard the dark laughter as the Dark Shade drew near. The crackling hum of its saber seemed very loud and she fought down a trickle of fear. She would trust in the Force. She braced herself against the shuddering earth and grew calm.

_Foolish child. I will strike you down!_

Rey was beyond words. She just poured her love and hope and belief for him through the bond. 

She heard the thrum as the Dark Shade raised his saber, she saw the cruel smile etched on its face as she opened her eyes to face it in death, saw the blade arc down.

And sobbed a relieved cry of joy when she felt the warmth of his skin as Ben took her hand.

He snatched her saber from her and quickly blocked the strike from the Dark Shade to stop the killing blow, thrusting the evil thing back. 

She turned to him, laughing bubbling from her lips as he squeezed her hand tight. Together they raised their opposite hands and Force threw the Shade across the clearing. It slammed into a tree and disappeared, a black wave breaking upon a rocky shore. The red lightsaber tumbling through the air to fall into the snow with a dying hiss. Cracks opened in the earth and gasses shot out where it fell. Time was running out.

Ben turned to Rey. “I thought I was dead. I thought you were another way my mind--” He trailed off. “Where am I?”

“No time to explain now. Do you trust me?” she said.

“Yes.” There was no hesitation in his voice at all. 

Rey took his other hand and tightened her grip. The ground heaved and leaped under her feet as Starkiller Base went into its death throes. 

“Follow me.” Rey looked up. Up into the sprawl of diamond stars glittering in the night sky, looked for the darkness amongst all that brilliance, and jumped. 

She held tight to Ben’s hand as he jumped with her. 

The planet imploded in a blast of light. 

And Rey landed, feeling a jolt through her as she reflexively clutched the sand of her home in her fist as she fell. She looked at her lowered hand, at the hand that gripped hers, at the long body stretched on the sand beside her in her garden, in the atrium on the station that she built to oversee the construction of her crazy dream. Rey’s Folly. The enormous world rings that even now she could sense were beginning to break apart and be drawn into the dense gravity of Star Solo. 

She had done it. Or the Force had. Rey didn’t much care as she crawled across the sand and cradled the face that had haunted her dreams for so long. 

She pressed her forehead to his. Hot tears once more fell to the sand. “Oh, Ben. I missed you so much.” 

He groaned and his hand fluttered weakly on the small of her back. “Is-is this real?” 

She pressed her lips to his. Frantic now with a need to prove it to him. 

His eyelids jittered then cracked open. He groaned against her mouth and she felt his grip tighten and hold her closer. 

“Rey?” 

The hope and hurt that freighted that word made fresh tears spring to her eyes. 

“Yes. I’m here. I’m here with you.” She squeezed his hand and felt him return it. “You were trapped, Ben. In the World Between Worlds. But I found you, I found you and you’re here with me. Alive. Real.” She stroked the side of his face and impulsively, yanked up the black tattered sweater he wore and pressed her ear to his chest. Weak laughter poured out of her in relief as she heard the steady thump of his heart. 

“Wha…” She could sense the weakness in him. He had tortured himself with his own worst imaginings. An endless flood of horror and guilt driving him mad. He had punished himself more thoroughly than the Resistance ever could. He had spent lifetimes in a hell of his own making. The Dark Side feeding on his terror and self-loathing. 

With a mix of hurried words and images she shared through their bond she explained all that she had done and gone through to find him, to bring him home. The entire time she held him close, touching him to reassure herself he was real, here with her. 

“An array? That must have taken-” _foreverlongtimedifficulthardalone?_ He sent through the bond. 

_ReysfollytheythoughtcrazygriefnooneunderstoodbutIknew_ , she sent back. As if in response to their thoughts the station shuddered and an alarm began to sound.

“Warning. Warning. Construct has reached critical failure. Shields Activated.”

Ben looked alarmed as he felt a sense of motion jolt through the station.

“Don’t worry. The station is automatically retreating to a safe distance. I knew the rings wouldn’t last once they were activated.”

“Can I see?” 

Rey nodded and helped him to his feet. She staggered a bit under his weight but she wouldn’t have traded the feeling of his solid warmth pressed up against her for anything in the galaxy. 

Ben saw the bloodstains on her tunic and halted. “You’re hurt.” He touched her side. She gently batted his hand away. “I’m fine. It’s already healing.” 

They made their way to a viewing window. 

Outside the rings, still spinning and rotating around each other became frenzied in their orbits. The cobalt glow pulsed so brightly they had to squint against the glare, then it winked out and they saw the rings yawing and pitching wildly as bright explosions dotted the surface and parts, huge as starships, broke free and slammed soundlessly into other sections. Within moments, it sundered apart. Debris flew out in a glorious climax of destruction as enormous sections spiralled into the gravity well of Star Solo to immolate themselves in blazing pyres as they fell into the new sun. 

Already Rey was forgetting. The knowledge and intuition that had driven her to build the incredible thing was fading from her mind. _That’s alright. I don’t think the idea for the rings was fully mine anyway. I think I was just a--_

“Vessel.” Ben finished. “The Force used you to build the rings.” 

She nodded and leaned into him. “I think the Force was seeking balance. The World Between Worlds is not a place of punishment or pain. It’s some other place. A mystical plane. The Force led me to you to help restore the balance. To right the wrong.” 

The rest flowed through the bond. The awareness of his sacrifice. His atonement and anguish. His grief. 

“I’m not going to tell you no. That there is no reason to think and feel those negative emotions, Ben.” Rey tipped up her head to look at him. He stared out the viewport at the blazing sun. eyes tracking the few bits of the rings that drifted through space, glinting in the glare from the new star. “Feel what you feel but know that you can’t let it haunt you. Every day you will have to confront what you have done, face your fear and pain. But I believe you can do it. You will always choose the light, despite the dark. _We will._ We will find the light together.” 

_As a dyad…_ their thoughts were the same, united through the bond. 

He nodded and hugged her closer to him. Not daring to speak. Rey pointed at the star. 

“They renamed it after Starkiller Base was destroyed. It’s called Solo now.” 

“For my dad…”

_And for you. This is where I first saw you for who you were and where I found you again._

She saw him smile as he caught the thought. 

They stood at the window together and watched the last bits of Rey’s Folly tumble and spin past the station. The warm light of Solo gleaming off the hunks of metal and crystals as they vanished into the dark realms of space. 

Light and dark. Ceaselessly turning. Moving through the universe. One and the same.

FIN.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I really meant to write a short 500-1000 word fluffy something. My brain had other ideas. I am toying with the idea for an epilogue (with the SMUT!!) but I really wanted to make sure my story was posted on time.


End file.
